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Ethiopia: Early marriage of girls causes death and disability

Source:

WUNRN

An Inter-African Committee film about early marriage in Ethiopia focuses on the harmful effects of this traditional practice.

Girls as young as eight-years old are having their marriages arranged by their parents. Many girls go on to conceive as soon as they reach puberty. This increases the incidence of fistula and mortality for mother and child during labour.

In a mini version of the IAC film about early marriage in Ethiopia, nurses and doctors in the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital explain how fistula means that many young girls cannot control their urine and bowel movements. The social stigma attached to this condition leads many who have received treatment at the hospital to seek sex work or low-wage domestic jobs in the city, fearing rejection if they were to return to their homes. If girls were allowed to to go school in their teenage years they would be able to better contribute to the developments of their country. At present the maternal mortality rate in Ethiopia is one of the highest in the developing world.